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That seals it – July 17th is hereby King Felix day. Everybody should celebrate that day by opening a cold bottle of beer and hailing the King. Non-drinkers can then donate said beer to those of us who do.

Otto on
April 11th, 2007 10:44 pm

Watched it on replay and was not disappointed even knowing the outcome.

Spanky on
April 11th, 2007 10:49 pm

Major KUDOS to USSMariner. As Rob Neyer stated at the beginning of his post-game Felix column:

The best Mariners-related blog — and one of the best team blogs, period — is u.s.s. mariner. Just before last night’s big game in Boston, co-captain Dave Cameron wrote:

That was a great game. I haven’t been that glued to my TV in a long time. Amazing. Watching those pitches in HD slow-mo and picking up the rotation clearly…I might watch it again right now.

Do you think if Felix dominates like this all season it will be enough to convice Ichiro to stay? Or will Turbo and the back of our rotation (2 through 5) cast a pall over everything?

Oly Rainiers Fan on
April 11th, 2007 10:55 pm

#33: Why is Bavasi a genius? the only thing he’s had to do with Felix is that he hasn’t traded him away yet…

—

Yes, he pitched great. However, he can’t win games on his own and still needs the guys on offense to score some runs. They did tonight, but after 5 games thus far, their team batting average is sitting at .167, on base percentage at .203 and slugging percentage at .292. That just ain’t gonna cut it to win 25 of his starts.

Felixâ€™s performance was good for a game score of 86. Last year, there were exactly seven performances by AL starters that achieved a higher game score the entire season. On opening day, Felix just put up a start that will likely go down as one of the ten best games thrown in the American League this season.

Today his game score was 87.

93MPHSlider.wow. on
April 11th, 2007 11:01 pm

As for the “who named King Felix” question, thank god someone did. Otherwise we might be stuck with the currently trendy moniker “F-Her”.

Slippery Elmer on
April 11th, 2007 11:17 pm

Or worse, “Feel-her”…

CSG on
April 11th, 2007 11:23 pm

Felix has the top two game scores of the year so far, and they probably stick in the top-ten all year.

Red Apple on
April 11th, 2007 11:39 pm

The plane and the movement of his pitches is just beautiful. With 17 innings in his first two starts, I hope he’s not being pushed too hard. But he’s been very efficient with his pitches, and certainly hasn’t had high-stress situations.

As far as the team going 25-11 in his starts, he likely won’t start that many games. And remember that this offense seems to go very, very south on occasion. That little bit of caution aside…

I’ve NEVER been more excited to be a Mariners fan. Having this sheer amount of talent in one pitcher…I’ll take this over the playoffs. But Felix will guide us to the playoffs.

All hail the King. I’ll sell my soul to see him keep pitching like this.

Go Manures! on
April 12th, 2007 12:07 am

I can’t sleep. This was too exciting. I am still way to happy. This season is supposed to be crap, but hey against my better judgment, I look at the 3-2 record and feel like we have a chance. I know we don’t but hey maybe Felix and pray for snow…….and rain………..and how about some more snow………oh, you say its gonna snow in Boston tomorrow……?

LB on
April 12th, 2007 12:22 am

I hate to keep being the voice of reason, but here’s something to chew on.

Last year everyone was terrified of having to face the Twins in the ALDS because it would mean facing Johan Santana twice. To face him at home in that pathetic excuse for a ballpark would mean two certain losses.

In Game 1, Zito managed to outduel Cy Santana for 8 innings in which, if you want to take Cy as the analog to Felix, the Twins offense is a darned good analog to the M’s offense. Cy gave up 2 runs in 8 innings and Zito gave up 1.

No way 2006 Zito was a better pitcher than 2006 Santana. Not in any lifetime, not in any universe.

The A’s won the next two games and never had to face Santana a second time.

The last guy I can think of who was so dominant that his three starts meant you’d bet on winning the World Series was Bob Gibson, 1967 edition. That was in an age where you didn’t have to battle your way through a Division Series round and an LCS round. And even he didn’t pull it off a year later in 1968.

Bottom line: making plans to attend the World Series parade based on Felix’ two starts might be a wee bit premature.

LB on
April 12th, 2007 1:10 am

M’s on the king, via Joel: â€œEverybody in Seattle calls him King Felix, but we were calling him Queen Felix last year, messing around with him,â€ said former teammate and current Sox reliever Joel Pineiro, who nonetheless recognized Hernandezâ€™ immense talent immediately.

(Pithy comments on appropriate names for Joel elided.)

Colorado M's Fan on
April 12th, 2007 2:26 am

USSMariner mentioned in depth at ESPN (there is currently a link to it from the ESPN front page)-

“The best Mariners-related blog — and one of the best team blogs, period — is u.s.s. mariner. Just before last night’s big game in Boston, co-captain Dave Cameron wrote:

The media is going to run with Matsuzaka-Ichiro as the big story, which should be expected. The matchup will open the game, and Ichiro is the most famous player on the roster. Oh, and he happens to be from Japan, or so I’ve heard. Since it’s Boston, the focus of the story will be on Matsuzaka’s first start at Fenway. The $102 million right arm takes the hill in front of Red Sox Nation for the first time. And the leadoff hitter happens to be his countrymate. It writes itself.

But in four hours, there’s a good chance that Ichiro and Matsuzaka won’t be the story to come out of this game. This is King Felix’s first start in Fenway, too. Red Sox Nation has never seen him pitch, either, and it’s his first major league start as a 21 year old. It’s a nationally televised game – only the second one of his career.”

On that ESPN thing… It would mean so much more if it were being written by someone other than Rob Neyer. Oh well, it’s nice that the incredibly engaging comments and knowledge of Dave Cameron are recognized so widely. Dave is so much of a good reason to like baseball and I have always been impressed with (not only) the knowledge/intuition but also the writing style and complete fairness. If he only had a book to promote…

re: ESPN… oh, so now they’re trying to discredit blogs by giving USSM so many hits that the site goes down. Man, they’re crafty.

That’s a joke.

Mustard on
April 12th, 2007 6:06 am

What a game, watched it on MLB TV on my laptop with a buddy that was a huge RedSox fan. I couldn’t have asked for more.
Favorite moment: The RedSox crowd as quiet as I have ever seen them!
Least Favorite moment: FSN guys comparing Felix to Freddy Garcia, I think I was yelling at the screen for them to stop!

Yankees on
April 12th, 2007 6:10 am

Yankees bound yo!!!

Gabriel on
April 12th, 2007 7:10 am

I noticed that Google is honoring Felix’s coming-out party by featuring on their homepage a picture of a metallic baseball achieving escape velocity and hurtling towards some bemused and amiable-looking aliens.

This is big.

Goose on
April 12th, 2007 7:16 am

You sure that’s a baseball?

Gabriel on
April 12th, 2007 7:22 am

I don’t think it’s a regulation baseball. It seems to have a hatch. It might be doctored.

Man, I really hate people that diss Rob Neyer. He’s educated more people on baseball history, analysis and how to recognize a good player from a bad one than all the bloggers combined. The only reason people can look at his writing now with disdain is because he raised the level of discussion. Rob is great and I really hope that some day he gets the recognition he deserves.

Karen on
April 12th, 2007 12:25 pm

RE: #23. Not DZ the author but a different one said: “Well, today was suppos[ed] to be all about Dice-K, they larg[e]ly forgot about Felix with him being on the Mariners and his pedetrian season last year, although if Felix continues on like this they will have to pay attention.”

and RE: #72, with the quote about the casual Red Sox fan dissing Felix because of his record last year?

Skip Bayless must have cribbed that guy’s comments because Bayless was on Cold Pizza this morning, saying the exact same thing. Bayless still doesn’t think Felix had “arrived”, even after these first 2 starts of 2007, but Dice-K has based on his showing in KC and his second-best showing in yesterday’s game.

More-or-less accurate Bayless quote: “Look at this kid, he’s coming off a 4.52 ERA 12-14 record last year, he’s not as good as Dice-K, and Dice-K has this terrific record in Japan!!!!”

Oh, yeah, another thing Bayless said in his diatribe on Cold Pizza: “Sure, Dice-K won his MLB debut against KC, but Felix was pitching against the A’s, who don’t have any kind of offense this year.”

Yeah, sure. Any Mariner fan can tell you that it doesn’t make any difference at all if the A’s are totally punchless, they SEEM to find a way to win games played against the Mariners, year in and year out. They could be awful against every other team, but against the M’s….?

We M’s fans were exulting that FINALLY, the white elephant is off the M’s backs with those 2 consecutive wins to start the 2007 season (never mind about Rich Harden getting the ol’ white elephant back on track if only for one game).

EnglishMariner on
April 12th, 2007 1:12 pm

Last night was the first game since 2003 that the Mariners have been shown on UK TV.

Worth the wait * 100.

giuseppe on
April 12th, 2007 4:05 pm

135 – I don’t think gag harbor in 119 was dissing Rob Neyer if that is what you were referring to.

They were saying that since Neyer is already a Mariner fan and has acknowledged this blog previously it would mean more if someone else at ESPN had mentioned U.S.S. Mariner so glowingly.